Friday, August 10, 2012

Dylan is cracking us up lately! As my grandmother says, "he's a pistol, that one!" True Grandma. Very True. Some days he is so ornery, sensitive or clingy that you want to pull your hair out. And then he flashes you that sweet smile and dimple or says something funny and you just want to squeeze him. Here are some of his latest antics.

I was working in the kitchen and Dylan was playing with a blanket - he calls over to me, "mama, can you wrap me up like a Cheeto" (instead of burrito)

Quick trip to the grocery store - Kyla is in the back of the cart, DJ is sitting up front. He looks at me straight faced and says "Mama listen, I can sing Jingle Bells." But he doesn't sing it, instead he does raspberries to the tune of Jingle Bells.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Reading a story to the kids tonight. Dylan's pick is "5 Little Ducks." In the story, each baby duck fails to return when the mama duck calls. At the end there are no ducklings left and the mama duck cries "quack, quack, quack" and all 5 ducks come waddling back. Each has brought something special for their mother. As I'm reading we point out each duck's gift. Dylan and Kyla name each one, strawberry, shell, flowers, worm, until we get to the duckling holding a four leaf clover...
Me: what does this duck have?
Dylan: I don't know
Kyla: oregano
Only my daughter who eats fresh parsley, basil, mint and oregano from my garden would say that!

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Friday, April 13, 2012

Question: do my kids listen to me?

Answer: Sort of.

Bought Kyla a new nightgown for her "sleep-over" birthday party in a few weeks and a bathing suit. First words out of her mouth, "Oh my gosh! It's so stinkin' cute!" Yep, exactly what I say about her clothes. Few minutes later she and Dylan were in the bathroom admiring their new bathing suits and all I hear is "I'm so stinkin' cute," "you are so stinkin' cute," "this bathing suit is so stinkin' cute," "yeah, stinkin' cute."

Ok so maybe they didn't repeat my most sage and wise words, but at least they have good self esteem!

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

I can't believe my sweet baby girl is almost 5 years old! People tell you to enjoy every moment because they grow up so fast - and I did. I watched, listened, documented, photographed, reveled and enjoyed EVERY SINGLE MOMENT. Well, ok except the times she talked back, gave me attitude, hit her brother, etc. But 95% of the time, I loved it all. And she STILL grew up too fast!

Maybe one reason I want to slow time down is that my daughter is awesome. I know everyone says their kid is awesome, but Kyla is made of awesome, dipped in awesome with awesome sprinkles. She's also very different from me. Not in the awesomeness department, of course :) but her personality is close to a 180 from mine. She's reserved, laid-back and introverted. See, 180! I love that these qualities make her observant, thoughtful, cautious (sometimes) and easy-going. One area we have in common - she's detail-oriented and a bit of a perfectionist. But the absolute best part about Kyla is that she's a laugher. A DEEP BELLY LAUGHER. She finds joy in everything and she lets you share in it. Like I said, awesome.

So, here's ten things this amazing girl has been up to...

1.) Kyla is very interested in creating things. She loved making play dough and spent hours cutting out shapes and making designs. Few days later she's asking for the scissors (safety of course) and tape. Next thing I know she's taping together a mermaid. She individually cut out the tail, body, head, arms and hair, colored and taped them together (see picture above). And pretty much every day she's got a box of markers and crayons out coloring, designing or writing. Today? No exception. She cut out bracelets for me, Dylan and Nobu. She taped them on each of us, even the dog. Nobu didn't really appreciate it and promptly tried to kick them off (she put one on each paw) and then chew them off. Kyla was a little disappointed in his actions :). So....

2.) She decided to teach him some tricks. Since he already knows the basics, she started with rolling over. She got his collar and leash, some treats and went to work. Nobu wasn't having it. He sat, he did "high five" and even jumped up, but it's hard to teach an old dog new tricks.

3.) She asks questions constantly. She has a scientific mind and wants to know how things work, what's going on, what's going to happen, etc.

4.) Her mind and focus seem to be on future things. Makes me crazy. For example: we went to the rodeo a few weeks ago. We were barely in the door and Kyla was asking, "when are we going to do this again?" We have to remind her to enjoy "right now" and not worry about tomorrow. It's like she needs to know that this isn't the last time.

5) Sadly, Kyla is going through a love/hate relationship with her freckles. From the time they first appeared I knew there would come a time that this would happen. So I've always told her that freckles come from fairy and mermaid kisses when you sleep. She used to love hearing this and I'd wager that she still does, but it's sometimes not enough to overcome her dislike of being different. Different from whom or what? Movie characters, dolls, her friends and in particular her best friend Sophie who has blonde hair and no freckles. Did I mention, she also doesn't like her brown hair and would prefer to be blonde? Barbie is blonde, I'm blonde, Dylan's blonde and of course Sophie is blonde. I try to point out that a real princess, Princess Kate has brown hair and blue eyes just like her. That my mom (her grandmother) who was considered a real beauty, had brown hair and freckles when she was little. She gets it and is excited, but she still wants blonde hair. She told me the other day that when she's older, her freckles will disappear and she's going to color her hair blonde. *sigh*

6.) Kyla tells me that when she's older she's going to live in Florida so that she can go to the beach and Disney World anytime she wants. I asked her if she'll miss me being so far away and she told me that I could get on an airplane and visit her anytime. Thanks, Ky.

7.) Kyla is OBSESSED with pointe shoes. She tells me that she's going to be a ballerina and dance en pointe when she is older. She's also wants to be a cheerleader, cowgirl, doctor (both for kids and animals) and a mom. Love this girl!

8.) She is determined to do a cartwheel. She practices anywhere she can find space.

9.) Kyla now has a chore-chart and she's really trying to earn money to buy the toys she wants. Guess she got tired of me saying "no" at Target.

10.) We are still working on Kyla sleeping in her bed through the night. She comes to our room 5-6 nights/wk at least hoping we will let her in our bed. We started letting her sleep in the chair or on the bench with a blanket, but now she complains that they are uncomfortable. Yeah, honey that's the point. But she makes such a fuss about it in the middle of the night that no one gets any sleep. Last night, she went to Dylan's room and slept with him. He likes it, she slept. Win-Win for everyone. We'll see if this holds and John and I get an uninterrupted night's sleep.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

How do you add a little fun to bath time? Glow Sticks! In the immortal words of Kyla, "This is so cool!" And true boy/girl fashion, Dylan gathered up the sticks and threw them into the water. Whereas Kyla asked, "how do they glow?" "are they electric?" "is there water inside?" "will they be here tomorrow?" "can we take them to bed?" "why will they stop glowing?"

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Ahhhh potty training, how I love the result but loathe the process. They say potty training the 2nd child is easier because the child wants to imitate the older sibling. Yeah, right. Ok, Dylan pretty much does whatever Kyla does just like a magpie, but most of what he imitates isn't hard, doesn't require consistency or pull him away from "his" fun. I hate to say it, but I've noticed with DJ that he's either lazy or he likes the status quo. He doesn't want to do hard things, scary things, unknown things - without a little push. Some examples:

1. he wanted to go down the slide into the pool, but had to hold my hand over and over, until I finally let go and he went down my himself. From then on, he went down all by himself

2. he wanted to go to school and play but he didn't want me to leave, until I left, and he had fun and from then on, he was fine.

3. he wanted to climb to the top of the playscape, but was scared. I helped him once and from then on he realized he could do it and was fine.

4. when he builds a tower, he wants you to build the bottom (harder part), then he'll put the top blocks on.

Potty training has been no exception. He WANTS the sticker and the potty dance, but he doesn't want to take time out of his day to go. He didn't like a dirty or wet diaper, but he didn't want to stop what he was doing to go to the potty. We tried a few times at home and school to coax him and we'd have a small success and then Dylan would refuse to go again. Basically, he needed a bigger push. That's my kid.

So we went cold turkey, all big boy pants 5 days ago. The first morning was ok and then it was all downhill. That's when I realized you can't ask Dylan "do you need to go potty?," you just have to tell him to go. We'd pause the movie, stop playing and reassure him that he wasn't going to miss anything. And here's where the sibling mimicking came in handy - Kyla would go potty at this time and that motivated Dylan to try. And he loves "the potty dance"! It also helped that we didn't give him a choice. It was potty or nothing.

The 2nd day started off great! We went potty all morning including a trip to the grocery store and Target where he went to the bathroom. Then we went to the park and all hell broke loose. Let's just say that I could have used a big glass of wine or a flask! It was gross, icky and I was completely discouraged. Then day 3 dawned. The Rodeo. I must have wiped Day 2 out of my subconscious because I actually considered taking him in big-boy-pants (along with 4 outfits). John talked me out of that (duh), so we put him in a pull up and "asked" him to tell us when he needed to go potty. Surprise! He stayed dry all day and went to the port-a-potty at the rodeo.

This morning, he woke up dry (we keep him in a pull-up at night) and went straight for the potty. He's now telling us when he needs to go! I see the light at the end of the "diaper tunnel" and that is a very good thing!

Lesson for me: All kids are different. My kids are different. I was reading back through my post on Kyla's potty training (http://kylabeatrice.blogspot.com/2009/09/that-darling-bum.html) and it made me realize just how different their brains work and what motivates each of them. It's a good lesson to learn this early and remember for the next stage.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

I love how after a day of making homemade play dough and strawberry muffins, Kyla still has more "experiments" to create and explore. Like, if you chop up strawberries and add water, will it make strawberry juice? Her mind is always working. Since the day she was born, she came out of my belly, issued one tiny cry and then began observing the world. An observer, a questioner, a seeker is who she is. She has a creative and scientific mind. She doesn't always take the initial leap, first she has to observe what is going on and formulate a plan, determine how to proceed and if it's worth the effort. "If I do this, what will happen?" "How can I create or recreate something?" These are the questions I see spinning behind her eyes. Whatever she does in life, whether career, passion, hobby or a combination - she will make careful study of it and then throw herself into it heart and soul.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

It's been 3 years since we've been to the San Antonio Zoo. Kyla was not even 2 years old when we traveled down there with Nicole, Will and Sophie (Kyla's BFF even then). Dylan was just 2 months old and stayed home with daddy. What a difference those 3 years make! Looking through the pictures today and seeing all the changes in the girls is amazing. From their looks to personalities there's been a lot of growing up since then.

It's been fun to compare the pictures, but the best part was listening to their conversations and catching them whispering to each other or sharing a moment together. I'm so happy their friendship has continued to evolve and blossom.

Saturday, March 10, 2012

...yes, I do. And it just happens to be Kyla and Dylan's favorite song right now. Listening to them belting out the words, makes my heart smile every time. Especially DJ because his favorite parts to sing are the "um, um" right before Selena Gomez launches into the chorus and "baby" the very end of the line. Of course he only loves it, because big sis loves it.

Kyla pretty much sings all day long to herself or the radio or asks me to play songs for her. Besides "Love You Like A Love Song," her current favorites include, "Queen of the Waves" from Mermaid Tale 1, "We're Going To Find It" and "Connected" from Diamond Castle.

Sunday, March 4, 2012

I was just reading through the blog tonight and was surprised by how many stories I didn't remember. I haven't posted since 2010 and it made me wonder how many memories could I have written down, but now sadly are forgotten. So I've been re-inspired to blog.

Today the kids and I went to the Austin Kite Festival. John's been on business in Europe the past 10 days, so it was just the kids and me. The weather was gorgeous and as Kyla said "this is a perfect day." (She's into ruminating on the weather of the day).

The trek there as usual took some planning and some strong muscles on my part. I can measure how much the kids have grown by how hard I have to work to pull the wagon. We parked in our usual spot and headed across the bridge underneath Mopac, through the field, up the hill and into the festival. It was completely packed, but we found our spot and launched the kites. It was pretty fun for the first 30 minutes of me getting the kite aloft, handing the string to the kids and snapping a picture before it plummeted to the ground. Kyla of course had her Disney Princess kite and Dylan went for the dragon. Good Costco finds.

After that it was over to the rocks to climb and then face painting. Asked the kids what their favorite part was. Answer: climbing the rocks and face painting. Something we can do any time in Zilker park, of course. :)